Archive for the Yuri Anime Category


Yuri Anime: Lyrical Nanoha A’s (English)

May 7th, 2009

There are many, many good things about Lyrical Nanoha A’s. There are also some bad things – things significant enough that they impact not only my own, but many other people’s enjoyment of this series.

We’ll suffice to say that the lolicon in this series strikes me as problematic. It’s not cute, or sweet; it’s pandering and it is troubling. I spoke at length about some of these issues in my original review of this anime, so I won’t beat it to death again.

Instead, I would like to focus on the positive aspects of this series. Primarily to convince Bruce that bearing with the first season is, really, I swear, worth it. ^_^

This season begins with Nanoha being trained by the Time-Space Administration Bureau, and Fate nearing the end of her punishment for her crimes from the previous season. In order to foster a positive environment for Fate, and to provide her with a functional family model, Admiral Lindy Harlown has adopted Fate and is going to live on Earth for a while, along with her daughter.

While on Earth, a powerful Lost Logia appears, and burns its way through the life energy of a girl the same age as Fate and Nanoha, Hayate. The Book of Darkness, a the Logia is called, manifests four guardians who, along with Hayate, form a surprisingly functional alternative family of their own.

For reasons that are very good on both sides, the TSAB, Nanoha and Fate are placed in direct confrontation with Hayate and her Guardians.

What makes this series good is, simply, that the characters are excellent. There is not one of the Guardians that isn’t likable, honorable and respectable. Vita’s a fun bundle of righteous anger, Shamal is cool and Mom-like, Signum is awesome embodied, and Zafira’s a good dog. There is no Prescia, no Jail Scaglietti here (okay, well, there is for like thirty seconds, but it’s a dumb plot complication that is made to go away practically as quickly as it appears) – just a tremendous, tragic conflict between opponents both equally matched and equally worthy. Of course we are never REALLY in doubt that Nanoha will befriend and “befriend” her opponents…and this time we’re so very, very glad she does. In fact, I kinda wished she had defeated them sooner, so we could spend more time just playing around together.

So, Bruce, I promise, if you can just manage to make it through the first half of the first season, it gets *so* much better. And this season is miles better than the first. Plot and character-wise, at least.

Yuri-wise, this is probably the least of the three seasons, mostly because just about as soon as Nanoha and Fate have even a second together, they are hard at work saving the universe. But, delusional as I am, I see it anyway. ^_^

I still think that the best characters are the Devices, something that has not changed no matter how many times I watch this series. I just love Graf Eisesn’s enthusiasm for smashing things, Raising Heart’s gung-ho supportiveness and Bardiche’s cool competence.

Technically, I have any number of issues with the Funimation translation, but meh, don’t feel like complaining. It’s a great series with great characters and some stuff that isn’t so great.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Character – 8
Story – 8
Yuri – 3
Service – 8

Overall – 8

My sincere and repeated thanks to newly promoted Okazu Superhero Amanda M! I just adore this series and cannot thank you enough for sponsoring this review of it. As much as watching it still makes me feel a little icky, I don’t care – I’m gonna keep watching it. lol Please email me at your earliest convenience to get your shiny new gold Superhero badge!

 





Yuri Anime: Maria Watches Over Us ~ Printemps, Volumes 3 & 4

March 8th, 2009

The entire season of Maria Watches Over Us ~ Printemps is, at its core, about endings and beginnings. The end of each school year comes, respected and beloved elders move on to start a new phase of their lives, presumably to not look back upon their high school days except as fond memories. New students arrive who become equally beloved underclassmen and little sisters, and the whole cycle begins again.

In Volume 3, we spend some serious time investigating the somewhat bewildering relationship between Sei and Shimako, and follow Shimako through loss and gain until she completes the cycle, this time taking her position as older sister to Noriko. This volume was simply amazing as I rewatched it, knowing what I know now about Shimako, about her family and her issues. But the hero of the volume is, and forever will be Noriko, with her grounded outsider mentality and her ability to not be weighed down by the tradition of the rosary.

The final volume of the season plows through Yoshino and Rei’s relationship problems. Yoshino finds herself relying on old patterns of behavior, but Rei is not playing along. Again, in retrospect, the fact that Rei could and would fight this battle at all speaks volumes about how much improved she considers Yoshino’s health. Rei is often perceived to be the weak member of this couple, but it is she who forces the new phase for their relationship – and it is Rei who turns out to be the one who can face the truth of their dynamic head-on.

And finally in Volume 4, we reach the arc in which we watch Yumi as every happiness she thought she had is stripped from her. But, knowing that it is all crucial to her development – and her relationship with Sachiko – allows us to watch it with a measure of complacency.

In many ways, these two volumes are more about love and about the way love is both a burden and blessing, than any other episodes of the series. And they are about the fact that, as perfect and inviolable as we want our love to remain, if we are talking about being in love with other humans, things will inevitably change. Changing the way we love a person is not an admission of weakness – it’s an acknowledgement of strength and of the reality of the other person. (This is a theme that pops up over and over in the 3rd and 4th seasons, as well – and is the source of much confusion to fans world over, because fans, unlike the characters themselves, just *hate* to see things change. “What the hell happened to Sachiko?” was the single most common question I received when the third season came out. “She was a total bitch and now she’s so nice to Yumi.” Fans get confused easily by the growth and maturation of the characters. Now I see more “What the hell happened to Yoshino?” or “What the hell is up with Yumi and Touko?” because, of course early identification of a character as “a bitch” means that the fan has to jump through increasingly complex hoops to keep their worldview intact as the character and circumstances of their relationships change. When everyone in the series cares about Touko, its harder for you to hate her, so you hate her harder to compensate. ^_^;)

In short – what you think you saw in “Rainy Blue,” in “Yellow Rose Weather Advisory” and in “Tears of the Rosary” is not actually what you saw. Like Yumi, if you are looking too fixedly at the series and cannot see it for itself, you’re destined to be confused by it all. Whether you want it to or not, the series is about to radically alter. As it moves into the summer, then autumn, the characters will have changed. A lot.

It’s up to you whether your love for the characters can change along with them. Otherwise, you might as well pack it in. The series as you knew it, has ended. ^_^ If you’re willing to move on, join me next time for new beginnings, with the third season OVAs!

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 4
Service – 1

Marimite Fan – 100

Overall – 9

The more I watch this series, the more I’m amazed at how *much* they managed to squeeze into the anime, and less annoyed at what they had to cut out. Although, I still hope we get an OVA for Shouko and Tsutako’s story.





Steel Angel Kurumi Anime Season 1 and 2 (English)

February 2nd, 2009

Once more we turn to guest reviewer and Okazu Superhero, Eric P, for a look at a series we all know, but never really think about much. :-) Take it away, Eric!

Before Kyoshiro and Kannazuki, the infamous Kaishaku did Steel Angel Kurumi, a surprisingly popular and critically acclaimed series when it first came to North America.

Set in alternative 1920’s Japan, a young boy named Nakahito trains to be an Onmyou mystic, but is a poor student for it. Everything changes when he explores a house of a mad scientist, finds a life-like doll his size dressed in a maid outfit, and kisses it by accident. The maid doll, Kurumi, awakens, and at first sight she falls in love and pledges her devotion towards Nakahito. As it turns out, she was created as part of the Steel Angel project, a series of battle dolls driven by Angel Hearts, cores infused with the power of angels to gain superhuman abilities; they were basically meant to be military warfare combining science and mysticism. While not a proficient mystic, Nakahito still had the latent powers that awakened Kurumi. She is however, more special and powerful than the other Steel Angels, for she is imbued with the Mark II angel heart, which also seals demon powers. Due to the danger of her latent power, both the Imperial Army and Academy (for which Kurumi’s scientist creator, Dr. Ayanokoji, works) hunt her down. Everything ensues with Nakahito and Kurumi running off on a journey together to evade them, gaining companions and learning secrets/truths along the way, ultimately leading to the climactic finale upon the Academy’s suspended-in-the-sky castle, along with the basic power-of-love message that transcends Kurumi’s unconditional devotion and Nakahito’s weakness as a mystic.

The Yuri found in this series mostly centers around Kurumi’s Steel Angel ‘sister’ Saki, who Kurumi awakens with her own kiss with the power of her Mark II heart. Because of this, Saki falls in love with her just as Kurumi had for Nakahito, then fulfills the role of the obsessive lesbian archetype. She constantly fantasizes the perfect life she might have with Kurumi and always jumps on the opportunity to bathe with her – for obvious reasons. There’s one interesting scene in the middle of the series where she decides to tell Kurumi how she feels to clear up a misunderstanding, and actually does it. In response, it’s unclear whether Kurumi understands, but lets her down easy by saying she loves her as a sister, or whether she remains oblivious.

This is all the first series. The sequel of Steel Angel Kurumi, however, is a straight-out yuri harem series, where all the characters are enveloped in a web of girls-love, all stemming from the main protagonist being a girl this time. Taking place in the early 21st century, Nako, a descendent of Nakahito’s family, is a talented, aspiring cellist while also being a shy klutz. Her best friend is Uruka, who comes across as the somewhat cold, tsundere-type character that puts up with Nako’s clumsiness. Everything changes when they explore underneath the shrine where Nako lives, and they discover Kurumi. Nako kisses her by accident, Kurumi awakens, and thus history repeats itself as Kurumi falls in love at first sight and pledges devotion toward Nako. We discover at that moment that Uruka is gay and had harbored secret feelings for her friend, which gets crushed and encroached upon by Kurumi’s entry into their lives. Wanting nothing more than the romantic rival to be out of the picture, she turns to her father who runs their family private military, unleashing robots to attack Kurumi, which she constantly defeats. He soon finds Saki, whom Uruka awakens with a kiss. But Saki is less interested in fighting Kurumi than she is still being her romantic interest, while at the same time having unconditional feelings for Uruka, so she often fantasizes having a three-way relationship. Regardless of her devotion, Uruka will have none of it, even though she lets Saki stay with her in her room. Nako, for one, is clearly hinted to have mutual interest in Kurumi, but because of her reserved shyness, this does not develop.

Unlike the first series, nothing really happens here story-wise, nor does it reach the same epic scale, making it come across as having been made for pure Yuri service. The story is mostly about Kurumi integrating herself in Nako’s normal life, i.e., attending school with her; Uruka’s constant plotting to take back Nako for herself; and Nako’s rise as a self-confident cellist. Even so, if you don’t mind having pure Yuri service with a predominant Yuri cast of characters, then for some the second series may still be more entertaining than the first.

If you were able to read through and follow the story summaries of the two series above, with or without a straight face, you can basically surmise that Steel Angel Kurumi is almost everything you would expect from Kaishaku. The story is about as nonsensical as it can get, although this is actually their most coherent one. If you like Kaishaku at all, or you’re at least tolerant of their works, then you’ll likely find something to enjoy in this. Ask this reviewer, I’d say in a strange way this is actually one of their best series, or at least this is a best anime adaptation of one of their series, even if it isn’t ‘good’ per se. It’s got some nice action and some funny humor (especially in the English dub, which admittedly took some liberties but still gave it lively flavor). There’s also no lesbian rape, which should count for something, right? If you’re interested, feel free to check it out on CrunchyRoll if it’s still there. (Erica here: They are, but marked as mature, so yu’ll need to be registered as an adult.)

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – Series 1, 6; Series 2, 9
Service – 7 (the usual Kaishaku panty shots, skin, fetishist outfits [mostly maids in this case], and other things I can’t recall from the top of my head)

Overall – 7 (my usual rating for everything it seems)

Erica again: Thank you Eric! I haven’t thought about this series in ages. I wonder if I’ll ever watch it again. lol

While I’ve got you all on the topic, did you know that there was a *Live-Action* Steel Angel Kurumi series? I didn’t. You can get the Live-Action version on Amazon if you’re feeling brave. ^_^





Yuri Anime Manga: Cream Lemon Escalation, Volume 2

January 29th, 2009

A few weeks ago, I regaled you with the tale of my visit to the Media Blasters store. While there, I was given this precious tome, the second volume of the anime manga of Cream Lemon Escalation (くりぃむレモン　エスカレション).

This volume is quite literally stills from the third episode of Escalation, wherein our heroine Rie, having lost Naomi-oneesama to graduation, takes out her needs on new arrival Arisa. Rie’s roommate Mari chases Arisa out, only to declare her happiness at their friendship to Rie, followed by declarations of love, of desire and, after they make love, the fact that she’s leaving Japan in the morning.

Rie receives an invitation to Naomi’s mansion, where she has Arisa for appetizers and Naomi for the main course, after which Naomi declares she’ll be leaving Japan in the morning.

…

I never really noticed that before. Maybe it’s Rie’s love-making skills, driving women away in droves. lol

In any case, we see Rie graduate, leave Arisa her picture and driving off happily to be Naomi’s love slave. Presumably.

The book flips, and becomes the first Black Cat Mansion episode about a guy, some maids and a housefire.

This little treasure of a book is something that I’ll happily add to the collection here at Yuri Central. But I think that if I want to relive this forerunner of so much Catholic schoolgirl Yuri, I’ll stick with the novel, which was howlingly funny.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – 4
Characters – 6 Rie really grew on me, although I have no idea why.
Yuri – 9
Service – 9

Overall – 6

A brother-not-in-law saw it on the review pile and picked it up, blushed, then put it down. “Well…,” he said. “That’s pretty explicit.”





Yuri Anime: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Season 1 Box Set (English)

January 25th, 2009

I’m just as likely to retcon my opinions as the next person. Only, I tend to go the opposite way from most. Instead of remembering the first thing as the best ever, never to be repeated or surpassed, I tend to like the newest and latest, and avoid going back to the orginal. When I first watched this series I was not impressed but, as the series went on, as the second and finally third season built up the characters and the situations, I began to like it more. By the time I finshed watching StrikerS, it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. So, it was with some trepidation that I stepped back more than four years to watch the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha season box set. Would I hate it? Like it? Well….

The story begins with typical 3rd-grader Takamachi Nanoha who finds herself embroiled in the typical magical girl setup of a magical creature who gives her both the power and imprimatur to collect a number of magical items. If left unchecked, these items will inhabit various organic beings and inorganic objects and cause havoc. Also quite typically, she is opposed in this task by an equally magical rival of the same age, in this case, the “girl with the gentle eyes,” Fate Testarossa.

Nanoha becomes more interested in hearing Fate’s story and trying to work with her than anything else – and Fate’s story, when we learn it, is orders of trauma above the typical magical girl series. Her mother, insane from the loss of a child, is driven by a hopeless obsession. Precia’s emotional and physical torture of Fate is extremely distressing, making us root for Nanoha to break through the wall that separates her and Fate just that much harder.

Of course, Nanoha does break through that wall, saving both the world as we know it, and Fate herself, by beating Fate down. Thus she sets up the precident of herself as the “White Devil,” and the also-typical “Dragonball Phenomenon” wherein all former enemies, once defeated, become allies. It’s all so comforting. ^_^ (This is a good point to note that the “White Devil”s particular form of “befriending” shows up right in the middle of the opening song, when the lyrics say something like “I will touch you with a love so soft,” as Nanoha is bring Raging Heart down on Fate’s head hard enough to crack her skull open. ^_^)

There are two things of note that set this series apart from the usual and typical. One is, of course, the intense interest Nanoha shows in Fate and the (obvious to Yuri fans) feelings Fate has for Nanoha. And I am still convinced that Suzuka and Arisa are also a couple, for no particular reason except that I’m a Yuri fan too. ^_^

The second is the sudden appearance of a completely different anime in the middle of the story. The Time Space Administration Bureau’s appearance and absorption of the story takes it to a completely different place and plot – and sets up the tale for the next two series. There is no doubt in my mind that Nanoha was originally conceived of as a seinen version of the popular mahou shoujo series Card Captor Sakura. The wife, who had never seen any of this series, walked in on an early episode and immediately commented on the similarities. Watching this series now, knowing what I know, I found this to be a welcome mid-stream change for the anime. I was actually *happy* when the staff of the Asura join the fight and shift the setting.

In a nutshell, because of my particular form of retconning, I enjoyed this series much more this time, than I did the first time around. ^_^ (If you read Okazu regularly, this won’t surprise you too much. I’ve done it before…I’m sure I’ll do it again.)

There were a number of technical problems, however. Some were clearly because Funimation rescued this title from the Geneon pit. Others were original. The art, for instance. The art was inconsistent and in many places, plain old *bad.* Bad enough that I had a hard time looking at the screen. There were about 5 different groups working on this series, with styles that were so different that they really clashed. The “carnival head” group got the uber-moe scenes. The group that put in too much detail and made everyone move so much that they all looked like they had Parkinson’s disease, got all the “unnecessary service” scenes. I was glad when we switched away from either of those two groups, back to the three or so groups that kept the animation to boring standards of “you audience – hey you out there – you do the work.” ^_^

The translation started off pretty consistent and, to my joy, used “Raging Heart” for Nanoha’s device. Midway it switches to “Raising Heart.” (The editing/adapting went out the door about a third of the way through the series, as well. That, I assume, was the Geneon/Funimation switchover.

And there were some technical issues with the subtitles, like lines through the words. And surprisingly, the timing was *bad*. I never notice that kind of thing, really. If I noticed it – it was really, really bad.

Extras can be counted on one finger – double-sided covers for the DVD cases. Credits and adverts just don’t count as “extras” to me.

The only other thing I had an issue with was that I am still not happy with the nudity. I never will be. If there was version of this anime the had none, I’d be that much more pleased with it. It’s just not needed and the people it serves are not me. Thankfully, by about halfway through the series, that too is cast off for the new, shiny, magical dimension kick-ass fighting story.

Despite the problems, I was really enjoyed rewatching this series. It made me want to watch A’s right away, which I did, and I’m about to start on a marathon of StrikerS today. Nanoha is a series that bears watching, sticking with and repeating. I’m not sure I could use this series to turn a non-fan into a fan, but if you already like magical girl stories, it’s probably a shoo-in for something you’ll grow to like.

Ratings:

Art – At best 6 at worst 3
Story – Starts at 5 and ends up at 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 3
Sevice – 8

Overall – 7

Paeans of praise and thanks to the sponsor of today’s feast, newly awarded Okazu Superhero Brent A! Brent – email me to get your new badge – with thanks for all the support you’ve shown for Okazu over the years!